Leaflet Distribution: Operational Planning v Strategic Planning

The concept of devising an operational plan and a strategic plan around a leaflet distribution campaign are two different ideas, and they address two different issues. Although they are often mistaken for one another, marketing experts state strategic planning takes a more long-term orientated approach while operational planning is largely short term.

During planning, corporate objectives are carefully set out goals should be carefully set out to highlight the targets that you expect to achieve following any corporate activity you have partaken in. In the case of organising a leaflet campaign, it is imperative to prepare operational and strategic plans systematically so that the marketing procedure has a sense of direction in terms of goals, mission and targets. Below are some aspects of planning that you should consider if you want to devise effective operational and strategic plans.

Operational Planning: Short Term Expectations

Budget: Like any other marketing scheme any company will arrange, operational planning for a leaflet distribution campaign requires careful assessment of the budget to have a clearer picture of how flexible your funding is. Since operational planning is mainly short term, you can analyse how much money the leaflet distribution campaign demands over a short course of time. If you are limited for funds, plan a small-scale campaign and maybe expand if the campaign performs well.

Targets: Targets and goals are a critical part of any plan, whether it is operational or strategic planning. A good example of a short-term target is defining the number of customer responses that your leaflet campaign triggers every quota. This way you can determine the percentage of leaflets that made an impact, which will help you assess the efficiency of the procedure. .

Benchmarking: The idea of benchmarking entails evaluating the performance of your leaflet distribution campaign with reference to the past performance of your company’s leaflet campaign. If your organisation has never used leaflet marketing, then you can use a rival company’s statistics, if you can obtain access to them. Benchmarking is a brilliant measure of success as it sets realistic targets that you know are achievable.

Strategic Planning: Long Term Expectations

Time: The aim of strategic planning is to achieve long-term goals, and this is obviously assessed over long periods. Apart from making sure you have set a clear path of action by being concise it is important to consider the infinite challenges that await your leaflet campaign. Consider implementing contingency plans to eliminate the likelihood of risks sabotaging the long-term outcome of the campaign.

Benchmarking: Similar to operational planning, you should consider setting benchmarks for your long-term campaign to make the targets understandable. Target suggestions include using yearly recordings of the return on investment of the leaflet campaign. It would be a good idea to assess the defects of the previous year’s campaign, in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes again. This way you can set your sights on higher return on investment, facilitated by a better campaign overall.

Detail: independently devising the strategic plan for a leaflet distribution campaign becomes increasingly complicated when you start to focus on the finer detail. Strategists recommend that you understand your unique selling point and your target customers to increase the relevance and efficiency of your campaign. Other details like leaflet design, offers included on the leaflet and where you will distribute the leaflets to are certainly require attention, but it may be best to delegate the responsibility for these aspects, so that you can focus on overall strategy.

It is important to make sure you carefully plan your leaflet campaign before distribution commences. Assessing the results of your campaign is a pivotal part of measuring success, otherwise you could waste money investing in a campaign that has minimal return on investment. Once you have finished planning, contact us at Direct Letterbox on 0800 028 6353, as we can help with difficult jobs like design and distribution. We are a professional leaflet distributor helping many companies achieve dramatic results on such marketing campaigns.